In the Shadow of Man.

GOODALL, Jane Van Lawick-.

Item Number: 140976

Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1971.

First edition, early printing of this “absolutely fascinating to read as a story of discovery . . . The whole book is enthralling” (Boston Globe). Octavo, original cloth, illustrated endpapers, illustrated throughout. Presentation copy, inscribed twice by the author on the half and title pages, “For Nan Hear your heart Jane Goodall” and again on the title page, “Best wishes Jane Goodall.” Near fine in a good price-clipped dust jacket. Illustrations by Hugo Van Lawick.

Jane Goodall's adventure began when the famous anthropologist Dr. Louis Leakey suggested that a long-term study of chimpanzees in the wild might shed light on the behavior of our closest living relatives. Accompanied by only her mother and her African assistants, she set up camp in the remote Gombe Stream Chimpanzee Reserve in Tanzania. For months the project seemed hopeless; out in the forest from dawn until dark, she had but fleeting glimpses of frightened animals. But gradually she won their trust and was able to record previously unknown behavior, such as the use—and even the making— of tools, until then believed to be an exclusive skill of man. As she came to know the chimps as individuals, she began to understand their complicated social hierarchy and observed many extraordinary behaviors, which have forever changed our understanding of the profound connection between humans and chimpanzees. "In the Shadow of Man is “one of the Western world’s great scientific achievements” (Stephen Jay Gould).